I remember one summer when my family was on holiday at my aunt's house in Stoke on Trent my father took us to what appeared to be a disused reservoir within a park. He explained that under the grate he showed us a young woman was once held for ransom. Her name was Lesley Whittle …
Dirk Bogarde stars in this 1978 Fassbinder film as Hermann, a chocolate factory owner living in Berlin during the Weimar Republic who suffers from dissociation. He dreams of escape. On his travels he meets a homeless man who he thinks can imitate him in a scam. This will involve his faked murder so that he …
This 1978 Fassbinder movie starts with the film's eponymous hero Maria getting married to her husband Hermann in Germany during World War II just as a bomb being dropped threatens to curtail proceedings. Thankfully the couple's union is officially sealed and Hermann then goes off to fight in the war himself. After learning later that …
Fassbinder's 1971 film concerns a German film crew waiting for a production to start whilst on set in a Spanish hotel lobby. The film starts with the verbal recanting of a Goofy cartoon. This is possibly the most linear and conventional part of the entire film's narrative but that's not an insult. The rest of …
More Fassbinder goodness with this 1974 film as we see the central character start out as a happy go lucky woman who feels pressurised to find a man, settle down and adjust to married life. Her own parents are revealed to be in a loveless marriage until Martha's father collapses and dies when he is …
Emmi, a 60 year old widowed cleaner decides to enter a bar that is playing Arabic music to shield from the rain. She sits at a table on her own far from the regulars who are at the other side of the bar. They dare one of their entourage, Ali to go and ask her …
When I saw that Robin Askwith headed the cast of this British 70's horror flick I instantly thought of the brilliant bawdy comedies The Confessions series which he starred in and were delightfully mucky and low-brow. Perfect for the era. If Mr Askwith could prove a huge hit with the sexploitation brigade surely he could …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween 2020- Day 24- Horror Hospital (1973)
A young man who can restore frescos (ancient works of art) arrives to restore one such artwork but finds events within the remote town to be far from normal. Indeed, they are downright bizarre. Does the fresco hold any clues? Does it depict what people have been led to believe it shows? Will the events …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween 2020- Day 21- The House With Laughing Windows (1976)
It's 1974. A French starlet who isn't averse to modelling with no clothes on is seduced by an enigmatic young man who asks to take her home to meet his parents. However, his home appears to be some kind of old institution like a long forgotten prison. And this is exactly what it is. His …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween 2020- Day 16- House of Whipcord (1974)
This is another Pete Walker horror sleazefest (hooray!!!) Figure skater Samantha is about to get married to wealthy businessman Alan. Her mother's former partner has just been released from prison and starts stalking her, travelling from the North East to London to accomplish the job. This film mines into the whole phenomenon of being followed, …
Continue reading 31 Days of Halloween 2020- Day 14- Schizo (1976)
